Satellite Radio Install

[Jet1733]

20 years ago I bought a Sirius satellite receiver. Plugs into the cigarette lighter, had a little antenna and an aux chord that went to the stereo. The guy that sold it to me talked me into a lifetime subscription for $399. I felt like an idiot but I did it. I called Sirius the other day to ask about a new power chord and the guy asked why I never updated my receiver. I didn’t think I could. He said I could transfer the lifetime subscription twice so I bought a new receiver and installed it on my Vortex. I had to run a power chord and I wanted another charging plug in the glove box. I’m no electrician by any means but here’s what I did.

The receiver comes with a car kit that has double sided tape that mounts to a smooth smooth surface and the receiver mounts to that. I didn’t think it would hold up to the heat and bouncing of a boat so I wanted to hard mount it. This is what I had to work with. This is the glovebox with a controller and an aux in jack



my plan was to not drill if at all possible and I ended up only have to make that aux Jack a little bigger.




This is part of the car kit. I drilled out the center so I could run the 3 wires through it. Once I drilled it out I realized the ends of the antenna cord and power cord wouldn’t fit through the hole I drilled so I had to dremel out the hole to squeeze the ends through



once I got the wires through I was able to put the open but on the backside and mount the receiver. You can see the 1 1/4 hole I drilled to the left of the controller. My plan was for this to be a charging port and under the dash I would tap into the wires and install another lighter plug for the receiver to plug into


I used the dremel on the bottom side too so the wires would be flush near where they plug into the mount.




Finished product.

 

[Ronnie]

The install looks nice, good work but wouldn’t it have been simpler to replace the head unit with a model that has satellite radio functionality built into it (actually it just has an input for the satellite radio module on the back of it and buttons to access the xm radio functions on the front of the head unit).

One of the benefits of your system is that you can transfer it between vehicles if you have another cradle, power cable and antennae installed in them. For a few more dollars each month Sirius now offers customers the option of listening to satellite radio through their smartphones as long as they are in a cell coverage area but you have to have a standard subscription as well.

 

[ChrisM]

Your source unit in the glove-box clearly shows Sirius XM.
Did you just want another portable unit instead of transferring your subscription to the Clarion source unit?

 

[Jet1733]

Both of y’all are correct lol. Yes it would have been easier to subscribe to the SiriusXM module in the head unit and just control it that way or to even Bluetooth the Sirius Xm app to the head unit. The hold up was a couple of things. On our lake we don’t have great cell service everywhere and seems like everyone else has ATT which makes a signal strong enough to do anything more than text hard to find. Second that receiver I installed is free technically. Since I paid for a lifetime subscription 20 years ago I don’t pay a monthly fee at all. I couldn’t tell you how much the monthly fee is anymore. Also I can grab the receiver when we leave and plug it into another car or in a radio at home. Yeah it’s old school and not as convenient as everything else nowadays but it’s free.

 

[Yamahaul]

WOW 399 lifetime.

 

[biffdotorg]

I was on the same brainwave length as the others by adding it to the existing radio. But the display on that unit you got is sweet! Better than the display on my new fusion.

So I guess I can see why you did it. And if you can pull it easily, more power to you. That's how I got started with XM, was with a portable unit, that I moved from boat to my company car every week and back. It also could transmit to FM. Not the best sound, but I could broadcast to the boats tied up to me! Loved it!

Nice job!

 

[Jet1733]

WOW 399 lifetime.

Yeah I really thought I had messed up 20 years ago because it was so new. I definitely got my moneys worth

 

[Jet1733]

I was on the same brainwave length as the others by adding it to the existing radio. But the display on that unit you got is sweet! Better than the display on my new fusion.

So I guess I can see why you did it. And if you can pull it easily, more power to you. That's how I got started with XM, was with a portable unit, that I moved from boat to my company car every week and back. It also could transmit to FM. Not the best sound, but I could broadcast to the boats tied up to me! Loved it!

Nice job!

I appreciate it. The display and features are pretty cool. It seems bright enough that it should be OK with the sun out. This weekend will be the first time I actually get to use it